14 March 2013

Jews of Europe database updated

The Knowles Collection: Jews of Europe database has been updated again. The continued growth has brought the database to now include the records of over 250,000 Jews. The latest additions include the birth, marriage and death records of the Jews of Bratislava, as well as records from Denmark and the Netherlands.

2 comments:

What can you tell me (if anything) about Jews in Switzerland, (Zurich / Canton Aargau) in 1700-1800 intermarrying with Mennonites/Anabaptists. I have Anabaptist history on both sides of my family from those places and, as I look at old pictures, I see "Jewishness" written all over many, many of the faces. I can't find anybody who will even approach this subject with me. One dear cousin in Alsace, in her 90s (who would know if anyone did)said, "Oh, it was such a long time ago." She died at 102 and took all the info with her (if there was any!). Many thanks!!

I should add that the last name spellings would be Baltzli, Boeltzli in Switzerland (Swiss/German); Belsly and Belsley mostly in Illinois; Pelsy in Indiana and Alsace; Abersoll in Indiana and Abresol in France; Frei in Switzerland and Frey in Indiana. There are probably a couple of other variations, but that's major ones, all beginning with the earliest I've found. Thanks again.

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Why the Knowles Collection?

From an early age I have been trying to find as much information as I could about my gggrandfather, Morris DavidRosenbaum, a Polish Jew. In my search and through my work as a Reference Consultant in the British Research unit at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah, I have compiled records of The Jewish people. This collection, linking Jewish families, is available free to all. Hopefully, people will come together to share the stories of their own families.

Size of the databases (28 Jan 2015)

Jews of British Isles 208,349Jews of Europe380,637Jews of North America489,400Jews of South America and Caribbean21,351Jews of Africa & Orient37,618Jews of South Pacific21,518

Total 1,158,873

Growth and Change

In the 7 years since the Knowles Collection was first published, the numbers have climbed from just over 7,500 to over 1,000,000as of April of 2014. So many of our ancestors left their native lands for new homes. Because of that movement the collection will now be in 6 different databases. All of them will be under the Knowles Collection umbrella. They are Jewsof The British Isles; Jews of the North America; Jews of Europe; Jews of South America and the Caribbean; and Jews of Africa and the Orient and the newest one, Jews of the Southern Pacific.. This is a great indication of how universal our families are, and of how much still needs to be done.